The invention resides in a rigid salt container of plastic material for the hemodialysis which is sealed in an airtight manner and includes a coupling arrangement for communication with a dialysis apparatus.
Such containers are one-way devices which contain the amount of bicarbonate salt required for a hemodialysis procedure and which, during use, are connected to a hemodialysis apparatus by way of the coupling arrangement. The hemodialysis apparatus then conducts dialysis liquid through the salt container for the absorption of the salt.
Such salt containers are known in the form of flexible bags (for example WO 99/06083A1, DE 696 16 073 T2) and also in the form of rigid containers (for example, EP 0 112 295 A2).
At the end of the procedure, the dialysis apparatus sucks the dialysis liquid out of the salt container. With salt containers in the form of flexible bags, the bag is compressed because of the vacuum generated therein so that it is emptied without problems. With rigid containers, which have certain advantages over flexible bags, the emptying is problematic because the rigid container cannot collapse. As a result, the liquid can only be partially sucked out.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a rigid salt container for the hemodialysis in such a way that it can be emptied without problems by the vacuum generated by the dialysis apparatus.